And the same problem to a lesser degree hurt us nationally -- besides the war, there was all of the corruption in Congress. When one of our Party's Congresscritters goes to jail that's not helpful.
Before the election there was a lot of discussion here and on the Ohio board that Blackwell was solidly conservative, the base would be motivated and therefore we would do well. In fact, conservative Blackwell lost by over 20% and moderate DeWine lost by just over 10%. Blackwell just did not run a good campaign and was not attractive to voters in this state.
The point is that ideology is often not the most important factor in winning an election. Popularity is often more important. There is no other way to explain the current Governor of California.
We should never under estimate the role of popularity in an election. Guiliani has been a popular figure since 2001 (and before that) and I have not seen a decline in his popularity recently.
Giuliani's close business partner (see Giuliani-Kerik LLC) who he appointed to by commissioner of the NYPD and later twisted Bush's arm into appointing him to be head of the Department of Homeland Security ended up narrowly escaping a jail sentence when he pleaded guilty and was convicted of his corruption crimes last year.
With Giuliani, you're arguing to repeat the exact same formula that you just condemned as contributing to our 2006 losses.